Grace, Faith & Life

The law (moral and ceremonial) is what God required of Israel under the old covenant. John 1:17 Gal 3:23-25 Heb 8:10, 10:20

 Legalism is a self-defined, or religiously defined set of laws (works) and expectations for satisfying our commitment to Godbased on a misunderstanding of how we come to God and how we walk as Christians.
Rom 6:11-14 Gal 2:20-21 Mark 7:5-9

The “law” and legalistic terms always speak to our “flesh”. 

Grace is god acting in our life to reveal, by the Holy Spirit,  spiritual truths in the Word of God.

Understanding pure grace, is understanding that our Christian walk (Faith) is responding to the revealed truths which God puts into our heart.

 We can experience God’s grace in every thing we say and do every moment of our life. It is not just a one time event. It is an every moment relationship with the life of Christ in us.  “By bringing every thought captive …”     What God puts into our heart is a lot different than what someone else puts into our mind. Motivating people to commitment and obedience before they understand faith is teaching them to sin. (People are too easily confused and spiritually dumb to hear a sermon on commitment one time and grace the next. Maybe the Holy Spirit didn’t have anything to do with training some clergymen.)  There are two aspects of learning pure grace. First you have to understand what it is, then you have to learn how to experience it.  One of the keys to understanding what it is, is that you must understand that there is nothing for you to do except “abide” in Christ. God is not expecting you to do anything in your own way or according to how the “world” does it. If we don’t understand this truth first, then we won’t have a correct understanding of any of the other teachings of Christ.

 Abiding will just be us trying to abide, rather than responding to what God puts into our heart about abiding. 

Love will just be us trying to love, rather than responding to what God puts into our heart about love.

Commitment will just be us doing it, rather than Christ living his life through us.

This is not good news. This will be a very discouraging Christian life.

When we don’t understand how the grace of God works in our life, then we do the works and give the credit to God. Pretty soon Satan is telling us “look what you are doing for God” and then pretty soon we don’t even give credit to God, We say “look what we are doing for God”.

When we understand God’s grace, we will wait on the Lord. It is hard for the flesh to wait. The flesh wants us to take off with our ideas and effort, so we can take the credit and get the recognition. But, if we really want, we can recognize the attitude of our heart, it is like a part of me wants the recognition, but a small part of me wants to do it to edify others. If we bring these selfish thoughts to the Lord and do our thing in his time, in response to what He puts into our heart, then we will be doing it for others.

I think most people are not happy about being motivated to works. It may last for a little while, but eventually they see how they are being used in the name of religion for the egos of the leaders.

On the other hand, many people are motivated by “obedience” and think that this is mainly how God deals with everyone. They point to scriptures where people were “punished” for their disobedience, e.g. Cain’s offering. Many leaders are perfectly happy to teach “obedience” as our primary relationship to God.  And that it is the power of the Holy Spirit which allows us, as Christians, to be obedient, never mind that Jesus changed all of that. “Obedience” is a legal term. It is related to living by the law. John 13:35 says we will be known by our love for one another, not by our obedience. John 14:15 says obedience is a conditional result of love.

But, when they see the leaders teaching and living by the grace of God, they want that. That is what people are looking for, the grace of God. Jesus said we would do greater works than what he was doing. Jesus was doing physical works, when we allow Christ to do his spiritual works through us, we are doing greater works.

Since understanding this Spirit to spirit relationship is a key to having a correct understanding to everything else, then every lesson and sermon should explain that everything we do and say should be by the grace of God and how this grace of God works in our lives.

It is not easy to grasp this. The Holy Spirit has to open the eyes of our understanding. But, if we as pastors and teachers don’t teach it, or, God forbid, we are always teaching works, then they will be so deceived by these teachings it will be very difficult for them to come to the truth.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

Whether they know it or not, this is what people are looking for, the grace of God. This love and dependence on God is the real meaning and purpose for their life.

What they are looking for is an understanding of the grace of God by which they can live and walk.

HOW DO WE FALL FROM GRACE?

Sin?  No, we fall from grace by doing works. Gal 5:4-6 We not only repent to be saved and receive faith, we can repent from works of the flesh to return to grace.When the light of God’s grace comes on, we need to be careful our excitement can incite us to works. We should let our excitement incite us to rejoicing and letting God’s grace shine.It is not us praying about it then acting on it and if God doesn’t shut the door then it is the right thing to do. What does this have to do with understanding Christ in us.I think many Christians think that they have faith when they do something good and give credit to God.

There is nothing for us to do except really understand being in Christ. We can’t love God or anyone until we understand this and then learn how to let this grace work in our heart.        

 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power  Col 2:6-10 (KJV)

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